Watercolor Butterfly

Hello!  Wow, that is all I can say about the beautiful weather we have been having here in Cental CA.  I just want to be outside all of the time!  

A couple of weeks ago, I attended The Great Yosemite Stamp Escape and one of the things that we do every year is to trade ATC's.  ATCs (Artist Trading Cards) are 2 1/2" x 3 1/2" little pieces of artwork.  I normally make between 80-100 each year.  This year I chose to do a simple ATC.  I decided to use one of my all time favorite Penny Black stamps and Tombow Dual Brush pens to create these little works of art.

I chose three Tombow Dual Brush pens (Pink #723, Rhodamine Red #725 and Purple #665) and colored directly onto the stamp and spritzed lightly with some homemade pearl shimmer spray and stamped onto some Neenah Solar White 80# cardstock.  After you apply the stamp to the paper, count to three as this allows the ink to soak into the paper a bit and your image will have a bit more definition.  

Once the butterflies were all dry, I stamped the sentiment from the Hero Arts Clear Design Friends set in Memento Tuxedo Black ink onto the lower left corner.  I then rounded the upper right corner of my image panel and my Orchid/Black layering panels with the We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper.  Love that tool!

Next, I used some Tombow Mono Dots Roller to mat the image panel to some Orchid and Black American Crafts panels.  The black panel is 2 1/2" x 3 1/2", the orchid is 2 3/8" x 3 3/8" and the white panel is 2 1/4" x 3 1/4".  

Here is what they looked like once they were all assembled.  The Dual Brush Pens react so nicely with the shimmer spray and the butterflies just glisten!